A UCLA law professor received an award from the Middle East Studies Association for her advocacy work earlier this month.

Asli Bâli received the 2017 Middle East Studies Association Presidential Award for her work challenging President Donald Trump's travel ban earlier this year on individuals from several Muslim-majority countries.

Bâli currently serves as the director of the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies and the faculty director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights at the UCLA School of Law. Her academic interests focus on international law and comparative constitutional law with a concentration in the Middle East, and she is currently researching constitutional design in religiously divided societies.

Bâli also served on Chancellor Gene Block's immigration advisory council, which was formed in March to analyze the travel ban's impact on UCLA and recommend ways to support immigrants on campus.

MESA is a private, nonprofit organization that promotes the study of the Middle East, according to its website. The association primarily focuses on the historical and modern significance of Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Israel and countries in the Arab World.

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